Nine Resume NO-NOs

Nine Resume NO-NOs

Before you learn how to build a professional resume, here’s an example of what NOT to do.

Take this sample resume as a prime example:

1. First of all, lose the Comic Sans. If you want to be treated as a young professional, use a professional font. Lean towards fonts like Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman and Verdana.

2. As far as font size goes, don’t go above 12 (except for your header). Don’t worry if you feel like you haven’t used enough space, employers are aware that you don’t have a ton of experience.

3. Email Address – Don’t use the silly email address you created in your friend’s basement when you were 12. If you don’t have a professional-sounding email address, create one.

firstname.lastname@website.com or some variation of that always works.

4. About Me – Don’t include this. Frankly, employers don’t care what you think of yourself.

A way around this would be to create an Objective line and say something like “Third-year sports management major seeking valuable work experience with the New York Knicks”.

Give yourself the opportunity to briefly describe yourself while personalizing the objective to a specific organization. This shows the organization that you took the time to customize your resume for them.

5. Do not use pronouns in your resume. Be as concise as possible.

6. Education – This is an important one for internships, considering your limited work experience. What is NOT important, however, is where you went to high school. So get rid of that.

As far as college GPA, you can include your GPA if it is at least a 3.0 or higher. No one wants to know you are an average to a below average student.

**One other tip, if your GPA is under 3.0 but the GPA within your major is higher than that mark, include that on your resume.

Include your major and relevant honor societies, recognitions and/or distinctions that you hold at the school.

7. Work Experience – RELEVANT work experience only! Referring to your paper route employment to get a job in ticket sales is not going to win anyone over (Unless you were the paperboy who delivered “The Daily Sun” in the 80s. Google it).

8. Hobbies – Don’t tell an employer what you like. They don’t care about that either.

Use this space to tell them about the work you’re doing at school. Maybe you volunteer at a soup kitchen on Fridays, or make donation calls on Tuesday afternoons, or have a weekly spot on the student radio station. Whatever it is, put it down.

Employers want to know that you are maximizing your time as a student.

Also, include skills that you possess. Tell an employer what computer programs you are familiar with and include relevant course work.

You don’t have to go into too much detail, but show them that you are truly interested in the field by the classes you choose to take. This may even spark a conversation in an interview.

9. References – Don’t include this. The “available upon request” line is a waste of space. If a company or organization wants your references, they will ask for them.